1. Warm Up Answer the following questions on your warm up sheet:
Have you ever experienced a tornado?
How do you think a tornado is formed.

2. TORNADOES

3. Growth Mindset Quote of the Weeek
“Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?”
-Benjamin Franklin

4. Scientist of the Week: Benjamin Franklin
On November 2, Ben Franklin discovered that storms move!
Major of the week: Astronomy

5. Homework For The Week
Study for your test and work on your study guide: DUE NOVEMBER 19
Text Complexity Assignment: Hurricane or Tornado (DUE TUESDAY)
Hurricane Case Study (DUE THURSDAY)
Triple Play Assignment (DUE MONDAY 11/16)
Tutoring times shifted for the week (Thursday morning and Friday Afternoon— let me know if you are coming!)

6. Today you only have to copy down the notes in red!

7. Tornadoes
Tornadoes are caused by warm, moist air in advance of eastward-moving cold fronts
The intense spinning of a tornado is partly the result of the updrafts and downdrafts in the thunderstorm
matters/translating-uncle-sam/stories/what- causes-tornadoes

8. Around 1,000 occur on average each year in the U.S.
Tornado Facts
Winds can exceed 300 mph!!!
Around 1,000 occur on average each year in the U.S.
Kill 80, injure 1,500 people each year on average
Can have a path up to a mile wide!!!
Can occur any time of the year, but peak during the spring (March-June)

9. What do you think is happening in the picture?

10. Tornados most frequently in the central U. S
Tornados most frequently in the central U.S. in a region nicknamed “Tornado Alley”

12. What Exactly Is A Tornado?
Violently rotating column of air (Vortex) extending from a thunderstorm to the ground

13. How Do They Form? Actually, no one knows for sure!
But…We have a pretty good idea…

14. Step 1
Before a thunderstorm, a change in wind direction and an increase in speed forms an invisible, horizontal spinning effect at the base of the storm.

15. Step 2
Rising air within the t-storm (updrafts) tilts the rotating air from horizontal to vertical

16. Step 3
Vertical rotation now extends 2-6 miles up into the t- storm. Now a tornado may form and extend from this area of rotation to the ground.

17. How Strong Are Tornados?
Strength is measured by the Fujita Scale...
F0 = weakest, F5 = Strongest

18. Are Most Tornados Strong?
All tornados are potentially deadly, but most are actually relatively weak (74%)…!
Only 1% of all tornados fall in the F4 – F5 range

19. What’s Up With Xenia, OH?
Xenia has been the target of several major tornados down through the years…
Most recent: Sept. 2000
Most Notable: April 3, 1974

20. Sept Damage
Where do you think this Tornado ranked on the Fujita Scale?

21. Sept Damage
Where do you think this Tornado ranked on the Fujita Scale?

22. Sept Damage
Where do you think this Tornado ranked on the Fujita Scale?

23. Sept Damage
Where do you think this Tornado ranked on the Fujita Scale?

24. April 3, 1974 Tornado

25. April 3, 1974 Damage
Where do you think this tornado ranked on the Fujita Scale?

26. Answers
Sept = F3-F4 (Severe/Devastating Damage; Winds of mph)
April 1974 = F5 (Incredible Damage; Winds of mph!!!)

27. Quick Review Are most tornados strong or weak?
Which would cause more damage, an F1 or an F5 tornado?
During which season do most tornados occur in the U.S.?
What is the nickname of the region in the U.S. where many tornados occur?
What is used to classify the intensity of tornados?
Bonus**: How do experts think tornados form?

28. Tuscaloosa Personal Account
I will pass out class copies of a First Hand Account of the Tuscaloosa Tornado from
We will read these as a class and discuss.

29. Tuscaloosa Tornado https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_MuaWDg5Z0
ure=related

30. THE END